The "Faces of Strangers: #25" Story

Volunteer Roger

It was an ordinary day.  Taking a photo of the master staircase in the Pierre du Pont home in Longwood Gardens which is located in Kenneth Square. Pennsylvania.  It was a tricky photo since the stairs began in a corner and I couldn't stand behind my camera to make sure I got the entire staircase in my photo.  So I revolved my viewfinder to get a better field of view.  That's when this gentleman startled me with, "Pretty clever camera you have there."  We began a conversation about the staircase and the house in general.  I could tell he knew quite a bit about the mansion and then I saw his name tag telling me he was a volunteer by the name of Roger.  Neat guy dressed in a long-sleeved dress shirt wearing a blue hat.  Reminded me of myself and I could just imagine that he also had no hair under that hat.  I asked him if he volunteers all the time and he said he usually does it once a week.  Took him some time to get to know all the idiosyncrasies of the place, but he felt he could help most people with the questions they may have about the du Pont home.  Carol and I got to talking to him about the house and asked him about the five flags that are positioned at the one end of the conservatory (greenhouse).  

Flags in the distance

He told us the flags on the far right and left were the English and French flags.  Next to them on either side were the the flags of Pennsylvania and Delaware and the one in the middle was the USA flag.  He told us that one very young girl pointed out to him that the reason the flag in the middle is the most important one was because it had a bird on the top of it.  We talked for the better part of a half-hour about just about everything and then he pointed out a few things about where we were standing.  The window above us was the bedroom window of Mr. and Mrs. du Pont.  I asked him about the many window panels at the side of the Conservatory and he said, "You used to enter through the center one, but when the home was opened to the public, they had to make one entrance and one exit for safety purposes.  

Pierre du Pont's bedroom window.

And, if you look carefully at the panels you will see chains running up and down on the side of the panels.  The floor below the panels can be opened and the panels can be lowered down into the basement under the Conservatory."  Now that was really neat considering the panels were close to eight feet tall and over four feet wide with curved tops.  Also told us that screened panels can be switched with the glass ones in the basement so that when they are raised once again the room will have ventilation for the summer.  Roger knows all the neat little things that makes talking with him more interesting.  We asked him about the very large cat that was reclining in one of the chairs of the mansion and he told us it was named "Belin" after Mr. du Pont's sister.  Roger said, "Someone took the cat a few weeks ago, but finally returned it when they realized the cat had a tag on it and was not the stray they thought it might have been.  We finally  thanked Roger and headed out the exit door, looking for a place to have lunch.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.